Reflective practice is defined as a cyclical process involving a series of phases in which an individual describes a salient event, attends to his/her positive and negative feelings about the event, and ultimately reexamines the experience in an effort to understand and to plan how he or she would act in a similar situation in the future. This paper describes how the concept of reflective practice is integrated into the evidence-based Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program. The pivotal role of the nursing supervisor in guiding nurses to engage in reflection on their work with families is emphasized. Exemplars drawn from the experience of 2 NFP nursing supervisors are presented to illustrate how reflection in the NFP program is operationalized. The benefits as well as the challenges to the use of reflective practice are also discussed. While anecdotal comments from NFP nurses and supervisors are cited to suggest how the regular use of reflective practice has the potential to improve implementation of the program with families, the authors further propose that research is needed to more rigorously examine the benefits that reflective practice may have on the quality of program implementation, family outcomes, and the retention of nurses working in the NFP program.
The purpose of this article is to describe how the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) has been scaled up and supported in Colorado. As an intermediary, Invest in Kids (IIK) provides implementation support for the NFP in Colorado using a generalizable implementation framework, the Active Implementation Frameworks (AIF). Organizing Construct: An overlay of the AIF and the clinical nursinginformed implementation support that IIK offers to NFP providers across Colorado is explored, and relevant examples are highlighted. Conclusions: Without the use of the AIF in combination with clinical nursing expertise to support high fidelity use of the NFP throughout Colorado, promised NFP program outcomes may likely not be realized and sustained. Clinical Relevance: Further understanding of how to utilize implementation frameworks to support evidence-based clinical nursing programs and interventions may allow for results found in research studies to be more widely attained and maintained across practice settings. Continuing Education Journal of Nursing Scholarship is pleased to offer readers the opportunity to earn credit for its continuing education articles. Learn more here:
Background
The purpose of this paper is to describe a Nurse‐Family Partnership (NFP) Nurse Residency Program (NRP) and program outcomes.
Methods
Dual methods were used to evaluate the first three cohorts of the NFP NRP. Participants were new NFP nurses, most working in Colorado. Pre‐(n = 42) and post‐program (n = 26) surveys were completed using the Individual Workplace Perception Scale (IWPS) and endorsement of program objectives; key informant interviews were done with the initial cohort. Descriptive statistics and unpaired t‐tests (for the IWPS) were used to explain program effectiveness and efficacy.
Results
Forty‐two NFP nurses participated in the program at the onset. There was consistent attendance (92% or more) among those who finished and modest individual attrition during the length of the program. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the content and meeting program objectives; there were no significant differences on pre‐ and post‐program IWPS scores.
Conclusions
The program was well‐received by program participants and has the potential to contribute to the professional development of new NFP nurses.
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